1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to an integrated circuit (IC) process, and more particularly relates to a photoresist removal method, and a patterning process utilizing the photoresist removal method.
2. Description of Related Art
In IC manufacturing, a patterned photoresist layer is traditionally removed using oxygen plasma after the patterns thereof are transferred to the target layer. However, oxygen plasma causes oxidation and bombardment damage to the underlying film stack.
In order to avoid oxidation and bombardment damage, a solvent such as OK73™ or LA95™ can be used to strip the patterned photoresist layer. However, such wet clean process has a lower photoresist cleaning effect because the solvent is difficult to remove the hybrid layer between the photoresist and the bottom anti-reflective coating (BARC). The solvent for removing the BARC is also difficult to remove the hybrid layer, so that the BARC under the hybrid layer either cannot be completely removed.